Tuesday, January 26, 2010

January 27th is Chocolate Cake Day! I couldn't find an origin for this tasty day or an official website, but with a name like "Chocolate Cake Day" who cares! it's just a great excuse to make a decadent chocolate cake.

So in honor of Chocolate Cake Day, I've put together some recipes and tips for you. The recipes below include chocolate cakes from scratch as well as those using cake mix. Enjoy!

Whether you make cake from scratch or using a box cake mix, nothing spoils your fun like a dry cake that requires something to drink just to get it down your throat. There are a few things you can do to be sure that your cakes always turn out great.

Room Temperature Ingredients
When a recipe calls for butter or eggs to be at room temperature, a common misconception is to leave the ingredients out long enough that you no longer feel a chill on them when touched, usually a couple of hours. This is incorrect. Room temperature ingredients are things that have been allowed to sit at room temperature for about 20-25 minutes. If butter is too warm, air molecules will escape and it will no longer be able to build structure, causing your cake to be flat due to the fat liquifying. For butter, your best bet is to remove the butter from the refrigerator, slice it into thin pieces and let sit at room temperature for no longer than 5 minutes.

The Right Flour
Most cake recipes call for all purpose flour. Unbleached and bleached all purpose flours are fine to use interchangeably, however do not substitute other types of flour such as wheat or bread flour. Cake flour is made from a softer wheat than all purpose flour and therefore has a lower gluten content and more starch. To substitute cake flour in a recipe that calls for all purpose, use the following equation: